MHARR efforts over the past year to halt and reverse the regulatory excesses of the HUD manufactured housing program based on the regulatory freeze order imposed on all federal agencies by the Trump Administration on January 20, 2017 and subsequent Trump Administration Executive Orders (EOs) – specifically EO 13771 “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,” issued January 30, 2017 and EO 13777 “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” issued on February 24, 2017 – have now produced significant results, with HUD announcing on January 25, 2018 that it will be conducting a “wholesale” review of HUD manufactured housing program regulations and regulatory actions pursuant to those Executive Orders, as specifically requested by MHARR, designed to “identify regulations that stifle affordable housing and job creation.”
A complete, high-level review of all such actions by the new HUD administration, together with the re-assignment and replacement of the previous program administrator, have been priority objectives for MHARR since day-one of the Trump Administration. With the previous administrator now having been re-assigned elsewhere within HUD, this latest action – which MHARR had specifically sought during multiple in-person meetings with Trump Administration officials at HUD, in correspondence with the Secretary (and other HUD officials) on March 6, 2017, May 5, 2017, June 29, 2017 and July 27, 2017, and in extensive written comments filed on June 7, 2017 regarding HUD’s implementation of EO 13777, and on August 17, 2017 regarding the proposed HUD “frost-free” IB — begins to address the second element of MHARR’s effort with the new administration, to halt and where possible, reverse HUD regulatory actions which undermine the fundamental affordability of manufactured housing without providing corresponding benefits to consumers.
A January 25, 2018 news release announcing the HUD regulatory review and a linked Federal Register draft announcement of the review (attached), states that the Department will review – and is seeking comment on – “all current and planned regulatory actions affecting manufactured housing” including, but not limited to: (1) all rules listed in the federal Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (i.e., Semiannual Regulatory Agenda); (2) the pending HUD Interpretive Bulletin (IB) on “frost-free” foundations (which is not listed in the most recent Unified Agenda); and (3) “the effectiveness of HUD’s on-site completion of construction regulations, its Subpart I notification and correction procedures, and its Alternate Construction approval process.” In the interim, the Federal Register announcement confirms that “HUD does not anticipate moving forward with any manufactured housing regulations pending completion of its review.”
With the announcement of this top-to-bottom review of HUD manufactured housing regulation, MHARR will continue to press for the repeal and/or modification of multiple HUD edicts which result in substantial costs for consumers with either little or no corresponding consumer benefits, as well as related matters which have driven such destructive regulation and/or have harmed the industry and consumers, including, but not limited to, full and fair competition for the manufactured housing program monitoring contract and reform of the HUD Federal Housing Administration Title I manufactured housing program, including the withdrawal of the Ginnie Mae 10-10 rule, which has collapsed manufactured home loan originations through that program.
MHARR will keep you apprised of further developments regarding this critical matter as it moves forward.
